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By the turn of the year they should be on about 50 points to be on course for automatic promotion.

There are oddities, of course.

Any Stoke fan who bit their nails through the rollercoaster Championship 2007/08 campaign will need no reminder that anything can happen in this bonkers division that no one wants to be in.

But, as a guide to hopefully tick off over the next few months, here are what the top two teams since 2012 have cobbled together as they’ve gone along.

Basically, if you go up after 46 games in this mad-as-a-box-of-frogs division, it's deserved.

Gary Rowett, brought in from Derby County to get Stoke back to the big time as quickly as possible, is ready to meet the task head on.

"I will never shy away from that challenge," he said.

"That’s the obvious aim and there is pressure that comes with it – but I don’t even have to think about that, it’s a given. I am concerned about the steps we need to take to do that and how we can put a team back on the pitch that inspires the fans, lifts the fans and gives the fans a little bit of what they want to see in a football team.

"It’s a different challenge in the Championship. If you look at the ideal combination you want players that understand and cope with the intensity and slightly different style of football – but you want those players to have Premier League quality because that’s the hardest thing to get.

"You need players with great quality who are prepared to work incredibly hard and be a team player. That’s the thing for me: I love individual players but they have to fit in the team, they have to be team players and be unselfish and I want people that are going to give everything to that united cause. They’re the type of players I really like."